Kuwaitis Don’t Walk

July 14, 2007

Thursday was quite a busy day for me. It got a quite interesting when I went to Bin Khaldoun Street to get a couple of hard drives. One 500GB SATA 7200rpm internal hard drive cost about 45KD. I didn’t carry around that amount of cash, so the clerk offered to come with me to the bank. That in itself was strange, usually he’s probably say, “we only take cash” and “you can get some cash at the atm” *points in that direction*. This guy offered to go with me to the bank!

Fair enough. He printed out the receipt handed over the bag and closed up the shop. We started walking. As we walked, Part of the conversation went a little like this:

Him: You have car?
Me: Yes, It is parked on the opposite side of the street.
Him: Aha.
*a couple minutes pass*
Him: Where you from?
Me: Kuwait.
Him: *looking at me weird* You Egypt?
Me: No, no.. I’m from Kuwait.
Him: No, you no Kuwaiti
Me: !!!
Me: Yeah, I am from Kuwait. Kuwaiti.
Him: No, Kuwaiti don’t walk like this. *smiling in disbelief and shaking his head..*
Me: Why, what do you mean?
Him: Kuwaiti only drive they don’t walk.
Me: Ah, well there are some that enjoy walking.
Him: No, ah.. umm..
Me: *smiling*
Him: Maybe 2%
Me: Yeah, even 2%, that’s.. 1,000,000.. well about, 2000 people. That’s a lot. (My calculation was off, it is actually 20,000)
Him: Ah yeah.

That was odd, heh. It was hot, the bank was about a 5 minute walk, we had to cross streets, so it wasn’t just an easy walk. He was in disbelief that a Kuwaiti guy would walk with him to the bank under such conditions.

Posted in Kuwait, N., People